Attic studio design - help needed

Hi! I'm new to this forum, I've read a lot of posts concerning building studio in an attic, but my situation seems to be more complicated so I decided to ask for help. Here's the situation - I want to move my studio from the basement of my house to an attic in a nearby building. The space belongs to me, it's 80 square meters, but the roof is slanted at an angle of only 15 degrees so much of the space is unavailable because it's to low. In the highest point the room is 260cm high, in the lowest it's 102cm - and that's without insulation. I want to treat the roof with 15cm of rockwool, and the floor with 4cm of wool + 4cm of concrete. There are also two chimneys in the room. I really want to turn that room into studio because nobody lives in the building - from 7am to 3pm it's a sheet metal firm (it's noisy so perhaps I won't be able to work in that hours). There is only one house nearby - it's 100 meters away. And as I mentioned it's my place. As for now the space is open, there are only trusses that support the roof, they will be replaced by walls. In the third picture you can see a wall - it's where the truss is, in the seccond there are two shorter walls and a pole in the center (which is another option). In the first picture there is my idea how it could look like. Please bear in mind that after the insulation comes in there will be only two meters of space on each side of the axis of the building that will be high enough to move freely. I record mostly rock/blues/metal bands so it gets really loud at times:-) I hope that you'll be willing to advise me somehow on this project. Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers

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Thumbs up.

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Congrats on your studio build! A couple of thoughts for you: - Since isolation is what you are hoping to achieve, be sure to check with a structural engineer to see if your building can support the extra weight of studio construction that is involved. (Something to the effect of 2-3 layers of drywall/Sheetrock/gyp rock + framing & insulation, equipment, people, etc.) - John has worked on a few designs in which the ceilings were similar to yours. Perhaps using the search function would prove helpful. Looking forward to your build. Aloha 8)

Hi, I know that the building can support the extra weight of the studio. It was meant to be a storage area, the insulation of the ceiling and floor was mentioned in the building plans. I consulted some people and they claimed that this won't be a problem. The only problem is height and the fact that I will need to redo the truss construction. It would be best to put a wall like in the third picture (it's where the truss is now). But the seccond option with a pole is also possible. Another option would be placing poles two meters on the left and right side of the axis of the building - I would achieve a regular shape that is 6.9 meters long and 4 meters wide. Than I would divide that into a CR and one recording area. I'd really like to have a small vocal booth also but I can't imagine where to place it. I'd really appreciate some possible layouts of the rooms. I'm starting the construction soon and I'd like to do it properly, my knowledge of room acoustics is still limited and I wouldn't like to realise in a couple of years that what I have built is a total mistake. Any help would be really appreciated. The budget is about 15k $, I'll have to pay mostly for materials, as I plan to do most of the works by myself and with the help of my friends (carpenters, masons).

...there are only trusses that support the roof, they will be replaced by walls.../end AND: But the seccond option with a pole is also possible. Another option would be placing poles two meters on the left and right side

You are talking about redesigning this roof structure and installing poles and walls to support it after the design?

Yes, I'm talking about redesigning the structure. Not the whole structure of the roof but part of the main truss, and placing some poles for additional support. The constructors claim that it's possible and safe, if you think otherwise please let me know - than I'll have to put up a wall there and live with that. Cheers

I'd have to "see" it to say anything on if it could or could not be done. Even that would be long distance speculation on my part;) But do be aware that if you guys decide to build any support type structures above, it will also need support below the new...wall/support.

Here's the picture of how it looks right now. I am aware that placing poles is possible only if there is a supporting structure underneath (there is a main wall directly underneath the main truss). But maybe I am a fool to think that redesigning this structure is at all possible - I'm relying on the opinions of people who have been building houses for a long time, they claim that to some extent it's possible to do that. But they are builders not architects so maybe they are wrong. Please tell me what you think. Thanks in advance. Cheers

But they are builders...

Me too boss, just a hammer holder trying to stay on top of the curve.

What is the height from the floor to the bottom of the truss?

I hope that you didn't get me wrong - I have total respect for builders! I thought that maybe you have a greater knowledge in this field that my friends, and maybe it's impossible to alter the construction in any way.. The height from the floor is 102cm.

QRA wrote:

I hope that you didn't get me wrong - I have total respect for builders! I thought that maybe you have a greater knowledge in this field that my friends, and maybe it's impossible to alter the construction in any way.. The height from the floor is 102cm.

I'm just being up front here. I do not see how I could help you alter the truss. Matter of fact, I don't see how anyone else can help you short of a roof rebuild. That truss does a lot more then you can just look at and see. Every square centimeter of roof deck depends on that truss to be where it is, in the physical shape that it is. And to be less then 4 feet from the floor...it would have to be cut up and modified in ways that would affect it in a bad way if you attempt to put doors and windows in it..

Many thanks for your input! You made me realise that adopting this attic for studio purposes is madness. After a sleepless night I decided to forget about that space. I'll use two rooms that are below - a 13 sq meters CR and a 12 sq meters tracking room. I will share the bathroom with the firm. The finall effect may not be as good as I wanted but certainly its safer and cheaper to adopt that space. I'll post some sketchup file soon. Again many thanks. Cheers

Here are the new rooms. I'll use the ones on right (with wooden floor) + I'll share the bathroom. I want to use the bigger one as a CR and the smaller as a tracking room. I plan to instal double sliding doors between the rooms, and thick acoustic doors on entrance. The height of the rooms is 260cm.